Spirit in the Shadow

Traveling Through Time

We ventured beyond the familiar, as if by time travel, to an unknown destination. We had no particular place in mind but only the hopes of discovering a hidden, creaking gem that has been withholding secrets for many years.

The reason to be pushing our boundaries of safety to find such a wreck? The answer lies, of course, in the hands of our education. Yes, this was another assignment. The instructions were quite clear: " Find an abandoned and/or forgotten place and capture it's fleeting beauty in a photograph." With this in mind, we continued onward.

Location #1

The day started late in the afternoon which allowed my girlfriend, Alexa, also in the Lambton College Digital Photography program, and I to find a nice area to shoot in and allow us to prepare before sundown.  Scuttering down dirt roads in Alexa's 2000 Cavaliere we unfastidiously followed a hand-drawn map created by my dad.

Ghost in the Kitchen

I have lived in the Petrolia area my entire life but it never occurred to me how much I would rediscover when viewing the grounds in such a light. Little things started to pop out to me as if I had opened my eyes for the first time in years. Rotting shacks that were once seen as falling, wooden structures began to seem lethargic but alive. Rusted cars were beginning to appear as a memory trapped in the very moment of the crash that would inevitably send it to sit, years in exile, unable to be driven again. The history that engulfed such anomalies fascinated me on an entirely new level.

Rubble Panoramic

With peeked interest, we hiked up the hills and dirt paths to what would hopefully reap great reward. We travelled to two different locations. One, a house that has sat still since 1995 and the other much older hidden behind rows of thorned bushes.

Location #2

The gif above is a review of the many photos I took while trying to 'ghost' an image. This entails dragging the shutter to blur the person or object in frame as it passes by. For these shots, the shutters were between 6 and 30 seconds.

Self Portrait

I will definitely be exploring this project again in the future and I advise that if you choose to do the same to tread with caution, but enjoy the adventure!